296 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

miles of his position, he quietly remained at Brooklyn, without reconnoitring that enemy’s position, or sending out a scout; that he withdrew guards and failed to remount them, where they were essential to his safety; and, finally, that to his ignorant, self-conceited inefficiency, the enemy is indebted for one of the greatest victories of the war, and his country for one of the most disastrous defeats, both military and moral, which it ever experienced.”

In closing this chapter, it is proper to notice the very limited extent to which the Kings County militia participated in the battle. Previous to its commencement, they were ordered into service within the lines at Brooklyn, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Nicholas Cowenhoven, of Flatbush, and Major Barent Johnson, of Bushwick, the father of the late worthy Gen. Jeremiah Johnson. Many of them, however, embraced the earliest opportunity to join the British army on Staten Island, and others concealed themselves. As a consequence of this universal defection, the regiment was reduced to about two hundred men, and, after the battle, was still further reduced, by desertions, to about one hundred and fifty. This remnant left the island with the rest of the army, under command of Major Johnson,1 and marched to Harlem, where they dispersed without leave and returned to their homes, where many of them were captured by Tories and incarcerated in the prisons at New York. This was not surprising, when we consider the example set them by their colonel, who left his command within the lines and went privately to Flatbush, where he was seen, shortly after, in company with two British officers. For this he was, upon his return to camp, placed under arrest and sent to Harlem for trial by the Committee of Public Safety. The witnesses were, however, conveniently “spirited away,” through the management of friends, and there being no one to appear against him, the colonel was released. After his return to his home in Kings County, he was engaged in certain transactions in the British commissary and barrack departments, and, with many others, was indicted before the Circuit Court, at Albany, at its October term, in 1783, for

1 Major Johnson accompanied the army to Jersey, where he was captured by the British, and returned home on a parole, given by Howe, in January, 1777.